Sharp County record., 1887-04-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Defines
"a Live Church"
Benevolent Hearts, Earnest Work and
Good Singing ESsentials-The FINAL
Salvation of Precious Souls the
Aim and End of All.

After three weeks Western trip Rev.
7. Dewitt Talmage has returned to his
Brooklyn charge and was warmly well
coined. In his first discourse after his re-
turn home he told his congregation what
in his opinion, constituted "a Live
Church. taking for his text:
Unto the angel OF the Church in Smyrna
write: These things saith the first and the
last which was dead and is alive.
know thy works, and tribulation, and poY-
erty, but thou art rich.-Rev. H., S-9.
Smyrna was great city of the ancients,
bounded on three sides by mountains. IL
was the central emporium Of the Levan-
tine trade. In that prosperous and
brilliant city there was Christian Church
established. Afteri it had existed for awhile
it was racked down by an earthquake. 1t
was rebuilt Then it was consumed
by a confagration that swept over
the entire city. That church went
through fire and trouble and dis
aster, but kept on to great spiritual
prosperity. The fact was, that church
had the grace of God, an ever-active prln-
ciple Had it been otherwise, all the
grandeur of architecture and all the
pomp of surroundings would only have
been the ornament of death-the garlands
Of a coffin, the plumes of a hearse.
1t may be profitable to consider what
are the elements of live Church.
remark in the first place that one
characteristic of such a Church is punctu-
ality in meeting its engagements. All
ecclesiastical institutions have financial
relations and they ought to meet their
obligations at the bank. When Church
of God is not as faithful in its promises as
the Bank of England, it ceases to be
Church of God. 1t ought to be understood
that prayers can not paint church, and
prayers can not pay the winters coal bill,
and prayers can not meet the Insurance;
and that while prayers can do thousand
things, there are thousand things tnat
prayers can not do.
Prayer for any particular church vii
never reach heaven-high unless it goes
down pocket-deep. In my church at the
West there was man OF comfortable
means who used to pray for his pastor in
such elongated style that he became a
nuisance to the prayer-meeting; asking
God, in prayer that was almost without
ceasing that the pastor might be blessed
in his basket and in his store, while the
fact was he never paid anything. If we
pray for the advancement of the church
and do not of our means contribute for is
advancement, our prayer is only mOckery.
Let the church of God then meet its OBJ
legations on the outside, and let the men,
bers of the congregation meet the obliga-
tions on the inside and the church will be
financially prosperous.
Let me say, also, that there must be
punctuality in the attendance on the
house of the Lord. If the service begins
at 10:30 in the morning, the regular con-
gregation of live church will not come at
1O:45; if the service is to begin at 1880 in
the evening, the regular congregation of a
live church will not come at 745. In some
churches have noticed the people are al,
ways tardy. There are some people who
arcs always late 4They,Iwers born too
: late, and the probability is they will die
too late. The rustling of dresses up the
aisles, and the slamming of doors, and the
treading of heavy feet, is poor inspiration
for minister. 1t requires great abstrac-
ton in PASTORS mind to proceed with the
preliminary exercises of the church whe n
one-half of the audience seated are look
ing around to see the other half come in.
Such a difference of attendan ce
upon the house of God may be a
difference Of timepieces but the live
church of which l am speaking ought to &C
by railroad time, and that is pretty well
understood in all our communities. There
is one hymn that ought to be sung in a
great many Christian families on Sabbath
morning:
Early my God, without delay
haste to seek Thy place.
Another characteristic of live church
is the fact that all the people participate
in the exercises. A stranger can tell by
the way the first tune starts whether
there is any life there. A church that
does not sing is a dead church. 1t is awful
to find a cold drizzle Of music coming
down from the organ loft, while all the
people beneath it sit in silence. When a
tune wanders around, lonely and un-
friended, and is finally lost amid the
arches because the people do not join IN
it, there is not much melody made unto
the Lord. In Heaven they all sing, though
some there can not sing half as well as
others.
The Methodist Church has sung all
around the world and gone from conquest
to conquest, among other things because
it is singing church; and any Christian
church organization that with enthusiasm
performs this part of it's duty will go or
from triumph to triumph. A church Of
God that can sing can do any thing thai
ought to be done. We go forth into this
holy war with the Bible in one hand and q
hymn-book in the other o, ye who used
to sing the praises of the Lord and have
got out of the habit, take your harps dowr
from the willows.
lam, glad to know that, as church, we
are making advancement in this respect
When / came to be your pastor we had al
excellent choir in the little chapel
and they sang very sweetly to US
Sabbath by Sabbath; but ever and
anon there was trouble, for yor
know that the choirs In the United States
are the Waterloos where the great battles
90 on. One Sunday they will sing like
angels, and the next Sunday they will be
mad, and will not sing at all. We re
solved to settle all the difficulties, and
have one skillful man at the organ and
one man to do the work of precentor
and now, from Sabbath to Sabbath, the
song comes up like the voice of mighty
thunderings.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children Of the Heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
On the way to triumph that never ends
th,t din--sir nl